I always love when i read articles that tell me how to do things in the ranch business that I have all ready figured out. This one is telling me that I might want to consider grass/alfalfa mixture for hay ground instead of straight alfalfa.
It's kind of funny to me because i figured that out a few years ago. My father for years only grew straight alfalfa but I have been trying planting some grass with it and getting very good results. I now have as much hayground in mixtures as I do in straight alfalfa. I don't think I will convert any of the straight fields that are left to a mixture so i can keep some real good alfalfa stands but it sure appears to be working great.
One other thing I have noted as a benefit of doing this is that if you plant an aggressive spring type grass, it also outgrows a lot of the weeds and keeps them suppressed for you. The disadvantage of having a hard time selling the hay doesn't apply to me. Unless I was willing to spend a lot of money improving the roads, I can't get trucks into my hayfields to sell hay so I never do. So, not a problem. Live and learn you know. It's funny when i learn things ahead of the "experts" though.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. Niels Bohr
Thursday, December 6. 2007
FIgured It Out
Tuesday, December 4. 2007
Tall Grass

Thursday, October 11. 2007
Tall

Thursday, September 13. 2007
Grass
Thursday, August 30. 2007
Different Year
It's amazing what difference a year makes. Last year was fairly dry but I felt there was a decent amount of grass. The cows were really restless though. I would put them in a pasture and they would walk from one end to another and back again. They never seemed to settle down. Last year I was hoping the calves would weigh good but they didn't. Fifty pounds lighter than they have been and they looked it to. The cows weren't in good shape and I believe that led to some extra dries this spring. It was a tough year last year.
This year now is completely different. The cows are content no matter where they are. they don't walk the fences looking for better grass. They are happy. I've kept them in their pastures longer than normal and they still aren't looking for new grass, just content with what they have. Damn is it nice to see. The calves are growing like mad and are going to weigh up good again this year. They look great. Hopefully they bred up better than the heifers and i won't have many drys. it would be nice.
These observations really came to my mind when I got to thinking that I hadn't seen a prairie dog all year. Last year these prairie lice seemed to be wanting to make a major move onto the place. You would be driving along a road and here would be a prairie dog running down the road or you would spot a new hole out in a place I had never seen one before. I took to carrying a gun and shooting them whenever I saw them. I don't want the prairie lice starting here. I must have killed 15 or 20 of them through the summer trying to move in on me.
I never could figure out why I was seeing so many. A lot of these places were over 10 miles from the nearest town so I couldn't figure out why they were moving in so hard. Thinking about it now that I haven't seen any this year leads me to believe it was the same thing as the cows. The grass was of very poor nutritional value last year and the prairie lice, like the cows, were moving around looking for a better quality feed. This year with the good feed there is no pressure for the lice to move so they are staying home and I don't see any.
I'm sure glad it is a different year. It's nice to see the cows happy. The only problem is all the grass makes a larger fire danger so i worry more about that but a little rain would change that equation. None in the forecast yet but I'm hoping. We are going into September and a little rain by mid month is not unusual so I am hoping to see it. There is an old saying the Montana is "next year country." You live in hope next year will be better. I can see that. As good as this year has been, I hope next year is better.
Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking. Wallace Stevens
This year now is completely different. The cows are content no matter where they are. they don't walk the fences looking for better grass. They are happy. I've kept them in their pastures longer than normal and they still aren't looking for new grass, just content with what they have. Damn is it nice to see. The calves are growing like mad and are going to weigh up good again this year. They look great. Hopefully they bred up better than the heifers and i won't have many drys. it would be nice.
These observations really came to my mind when I got to thinking that I hadn't seen a prairie dog all year. Last year these prairie lice seemed to be wanting to make a major move onto the place. You would be driving along a road and here would be a prairie dog running down the road or you would spot a new hole out in a place I had never seen one before. I took to carrying a gun and shooting them whenever I saw them. I don't want the prairie lice starting here. I must have killed 15 or 20 of them through the summer trying to move in on me.
I never could figure out why I was seeing so many. A lot of these places were over 10 miles from the nearest town so I couldn't figure out why they were moving in so hard. Thinking about it now that I haven't seen any this year leads me to believe it was the same thing as the cows. The grass was of very poor nutritional value last year and the prairie lice, like the cows, were moving around looking for a better quality feed. This year with the good feed there is no pressure for the lice to move so they are staying home and I don't see any.
I'm sure glad it is a different year. It's nice to see the cows happy. The only problem is all the grass makes a larger fire danger so i worry more about that but a little rain would change that equation. None in the forecast yet but I'm hoping. We are going into September and a little rain by mid month is not unusual so I am hoping to see it. There is an old saying the Montana is "next year country." You live in hope next year will be better. I can see that. As good as this year has been, I hope next year is better.
Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking. Wallace Stevens
Saturday, May 5. 2007
Timing
Timing seems to be everything in life but sometimes you can't take the credit for it. It finally got dry enough that I was able to get all my renovating and farming done. I finished putting the seed in the ground on Wednesday afternoon and finish up the farming I was really pushing on. Guess what happened then? On Thursday afternoon and evening we got one inch of rain. Talk about a great deal. This almost guarantees that I will get a stand.
I planted a mixture of Alfalfa, Crested wheatgrass, Pubescent wheatgrass and Intermediate wheatgrass. I'm hoping the grasses in the mixture will help the hay stand last longer and outgrow the bindweed in the field. I've some indication from other plantings that I have done that the grass helps shade out the bindweed and keeps it from growing as much so it's worth a try. Bindweed will really kill straight alfalfa so I had to try something different in this field.
They, the National Weather Service, is talking about another inch of rain over the next 36 hours. I won't complain too much. With the farming caught up I am looking fairly good. Plenty of work to do but I can wait the rain out. All I know is I couldn't have managed my farming any better if I tried. Hell, if I would have tried to manage it better I would have screwed it up I'm sure. I guess Mother Nature is on my side on a rare occasion.
Life is about timing. Carl Lewis
I planted a mixture of Alfalfa, Crested wheatgrass, Pubescent wheatgrass and Intermediate wheatgrass. I'm hoping the grasses in the mixture will help the hay stand last longer and outgrow the bindweed in the field. I've some indication from other plantings that I have done that the grass helps shade out the bindweed and keeps it from growing as much so it's worth a try. Bindweed will really kill straight alfalfa so I had to try something different in this field.
They, the National Weather Service, is talking about another inch of rain over the next 36 hours. I won't complain too much. With the farming caught up I am looking fairly good. Plenty of work to do but I can wait the rain out. All I know is I couldn't have managed my farming any better if I tried. Hell, if I would have tried to manage it better I would have screwed it up I'm sure. I guess Mother Nature is on my side on a rare occasion.
Life is about timing. Carl Lewis
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